Reporting BPP week 7 optional 4th workout 6000m steady: 2:14.8 @ 20spm, hr in lower half of UT2 or not even in UT2 for most of the session.

I ran a half marathon yesterday and often find that a race or really hard session leads to a very low hr the following day. A bit like when the pc goes faster after a reboot. This was just the ticket to loosen up some slightly creaky legs.

That's week 7 over, I did the 5th workout earlier. Onwards to week 8, beginning to feel that I'm getting into the meat of it now.

@Paul, very nice that you're starting, good luck - can't help you on targets but I'm sure you'll find a nice one. I can tell you that I lost 1.5 stone since I started 2 months ago, but something tells me that's not the kind of target you're looking for

@gordon, @dietmar, @liteweight nice great times, same session for me today so I know for sure that I will never be able to even come close to the majority of you.

A happy and fresh start to cycle 3 today. Last week travelled to down under, had hotel with C2 on the most beautiful location you can think of, overviewing the Yarra River and the Southbank. Did 3 10,000m there and had four rest days during travel (well...rest). Back saturday and now time for the 8 x 500. Felt soo much stronger than last week's 1:55.2. Happy with how this worked out

3/20 5x1500 5mR tgt 1:491:48.3/261:48.1/261:48.1/261:48.1/261:47.6/27Avg 1:48.0/26Today's music-Distillers-got me through the last rep.. was feeling tired even though managed to beat my pace (maybe it was mental)

mudgeg wrote:Slow, stately pace. Wasn't even breathing hard but legs were very tired and felt lethargic generally. Overdue a de-load I think, just one more week of the plan to go....

Nearly there.. It was quite mentally tough towards the end for me, it's a long old plan!

Litewait wrote:Tomorrow the dreaded 1,500's.

I'm not sure which are worse, the 2km or the 1500 intervals. Glad I don't have to do them for another week!

I wasn't sure how to pace todays session so did the first couple at a pace I knew I could do and pushed a bit more on the last one. At least now I've pretty much done one cycle, I've got some paces to aim for next time round.

Well done to all on the full-fat PP ... envious of some of the paces being posted.

Anyhoo, reporting BPP week 8 session 1, 8500m slow and stately, done in two shifts with 2 min break to take water, stretch and set up RowPro again:4500m 2:14.7 @ 20 spm4000m 2:14.8 @ 20 spmhr well within bounds of UT2 and felt good throughout as I zoned out to a favourite playlist and watched the rain lashing the windows.

Hi Folks,I haven't posted for a few days but I have been looking at what is going on, some pretty impressive stuff, well done all!I've obsessing a bit with the mud challenge of totalling at least 10k for 25 days in March. Day 17 posted today!

I have also been testing and experimenting to go for a sub 19 min 5k and realise there is still a bit of work to do to build (rebuild!) my engine (as someone on this thread has imaginatively put it). I have done a 5k @ well under 1-54 for 1st, 3rd and 5th 1000 and also another 5k with the last 3000 under 1-54. I have completed another in 19.27 which is the fastest for a while. Milestones, hopefully, on the road to big improvements.

I have also been experimenting with drag factor and seem to get on better at the moment at 160 which I know is pretty high. I have been doing longer pieces at r20 or lower and this has definitely improved my stroke but it has been surprisingly difficult to up the rate on longer pieces when I want to go faster. I have looked at a range of dfs from 110 up to 160.

Today I did 3 x 20 mins 5 min rest.I last did this session on 2.2.17 and was hoping for a decent improvement. Result, avge split (previous session in brackets).1. 2-01.6 (2-04.3)2. 1-58.3 (2-03.8)3.2-00.2 (2-08.9)Reasonably pleased with progress. I remember being shattered on the 3rd rep last time which wasn't a factor today.

I know I haven't done any pure PP sessions this week but I have found pretty valuable to experiment a bit. A reality check showing more work needed but progress made. Back to the PP grind over the next few days!

@ Elk - Great times! Be cautious on the weights. I know from doing it, it's tough to do too many weights along with the PP. For me, it helps if the weights are separated from the rowing by at least an hour (not always possible with a busy schedule I know).

@ Deitmar - is that a PB on the 5K? That's a very solid time!

@ Stu - SS stands for "Steady State", meaning that basically the row is similar in paces (or at least no real increase in pace, maybe a gradual one instead). I like slow and stately though!

@ Tim - nice execution on those 500s. Those are brutal. Smart on taking it easy (but not too easy) on the SS work after.

@ Gordon - hang in there Gordon! You're nearly done with the marathon. This is like mile 25 and you can see the finish! You might consider the week after you finish like a taper week before you test a 2K time. For most taper weeks, you cut down your meters but you keep a few fast (but brief) sessions in. If you want to talk about that, we can. Pretty simple, though. Just cut your meters by around 40% and instead of any long interval sessions, have one or two faster interval session days (pushing the intervals hard but much less of them). Add one more day of rest close to the test. Also, your SS work would be just a tad slower. I'd love to see you test again after a taper and then perhaps one full round of PP (that's the week I planned on joining back in so perhaps we can be in unison that week!) and perhaps test again. After that, I'd transition into a more sustainable long term plan. I've talked about that before, but if you need any help in putting that together, I'd be happy to talk. Not that my plan is any better or worse, but I have worked it all year and managed (for the most part until I tried too many rounds of PP last year) to not break down.

@Mike - thank´s for feedback, was a PB, but was my first real 5k test also.I´d appreciate if you would share your plan. My target is to take part in January 2018 in Starnberg the 30min again and to improve my meters. I am not sure if I could stand the PP the whole year and if it is right plan to have a peak performance in January.Best regards,Dietmar

Mike - many thanks for your e mail. Realistically, with my current workload (I am going to miss another day of training today - three in a row), I am going to finish the BPP end of next week so if I took a taper week, that would be w/c 2 April followed by one full round of the PP w/c 9 April, so if we could work that in unison it would be great.

Most grateful for your offer of help with a training plan too. Right now, work and the BPP has been so full on that I am only rowing with no time for weights. I would dearly love to work some weights into my plan and some core work too. Weights wise, my only limitation is an injured left shoulder which doesn't cause any problems with rowing but dumbbell presses or shoulder presses are a whole different issue. Then of course there is the time factor, mostly I can spend an hour actually working out (excluding getting to and from the gym and taking a shower), so weights and a longish row on the same day is not always possible. I was wondering about getting a couple of kettle bells or similar at home.

My "plan" is pretty simple. Just take the full PP and tweak it. @ Gordon - I only have one hour too at lunch, so all my workouts are within around 50 to 55 minutes. I work from home so I can take a shower once I get home and quickly get back to work (which is convenient).

Right now, my plan looks something like this (should look familiar if you've done the full PP):

Sunday - A very high rep total body lifting day (within around 30 minutes). Examples are I do a lot of Kettlebell one arm swings. I might warm up with 20 one arm swings on both sides. KBs are also great for deadlifts and squats. I add in pushups, bent over KB rows, sometimes barbell rows, incline bench sit-ups when I need a "break", KB Turkish Get-Ups (be careful with these, really pack the shoulder -- I only do the situp part of them). I "superset" throughout. If I start out with KB swings, I'll move next to perhaps pushups, then KB bent over rows, then KB deadlifts, then ab work. Basically repeat this pattern 3 times (or 4 times if time allows). My new favorite is one arm heavy DB power snatches (they look a lot harder than they are). I don't go all the way to the ground with them (start with holding the DB - there are some nice videos of this on YouTube), so it saves my knees. Another favorite is KB pendulum deadlifts - knee friendly again. I also might do KB weighted bridges - both legs and single legs - also a killer hamstring workout. I also like the Stairmaster at the gym (I only have time for this on Sunday). I use it as a front lunge machine, skipping every other stair and doing two stairs at a time. Great for leg work! About the only barbell work I do is on the back row (they have a nice barbell machine for that) and on some bench presses. The rest is mostly KBs and DBs. Goblet squats holding a KB are also a favorite of mine - really stretches out your back. I might do a few goblet squats at the end. By the time I'm done, I've probably done 5 or so leg sets, 3 (or four) chest, 3 back, 4 shoulder and 2 or so ab sets.

Here's the style of Power Snatches I do. Very easy on the knees actually. If you have bad shoulders, start with a really light weight. Some guys claim this has helped strengthen weaker shoulders.

Directly after lifting (maybe a 4 or 5 minute break), I'll do a few very fast sprints (either 250 X 5 or maybe 500 X 3 or maybe the Ed McNeely Power Plan (https://peakcentre.wordpress.com/2009/0 ... rformance/), which is 10 or 20 seconds full on followed by 1' rest - do up to 20 of these -- I never seem to make it to 20!). Ed McNeely suggests 10 seconds but the PMs only do 20 seconds minimum, so I just do 20 seconds instead. Add in additional meters with lots of warm up and lots of other cardio for fun / cross training, especially early in the year. (like day 1 of the PP).

Monday - SS work but making sure that I remain in UT2 (like day 2 of the PP - only change being really watch HR / effort to make it light)

Tuesday - Same full body weight routine as Sunday but add in longer intervals on this day. Longer intervals near 5K (or under 5K PB) pace. 1500 or 2000 meters. Just do one or so early in season. I sometimes will do something like 10' X 2. This is like day 3 of the full PP.

Wed - SS work again.

Thursday - Same weight routine followed by 5K or longer hardish (same as PP). This is a brutally tough day. It's extremely hard to do a fast 5K (and longer intervals for that matter) directly after lifting. Much harder than doing them fresh.

Friday - SS work again (again in UT2).

I've been doing this for four or five weeks now. It's not quite as hard as the PP because you can row whatever intervals you feel like and take it was easy as you need to on the SS days. It's still hard work though! I would say just take it really light on the weights. I started with 20lb (9kg or so) KBs. Now, I have a 24kg one at home (for "heavier" swings for me) but I mostly use the one at the gym (or two of them at the gym for deadlifts / squats) that is 35 lb (16kg).

After a round or two of PP again, I might transition into more meters for a phase too. I intend on still keeping the weights up but I would have to separate them in to the evening at home if I do that. A longer meter phase would look the same as above, just even less intervals (two or so speed intervals, maybe one intermediate interval and one hard day). The rest of the rowing would be UT2 mostly. Currently I'm doing around 40K to 45K meters a week. A higher meter week (for me) would be more like 75K meters. I'm mostly concerned I don't have any days over an hour. I might just keep everything the same except add in another half hour once a week on Sunday and separate the lifting and rowing on Sunday by a couple of hours.

My concern with my current plan is not enough aerobic work. But as I'm sure Andy can tell you (the climber of the group), this type of weight lifting - I go right from one exercise to the other, is very much cardio work. So I'm still getting 6 hours of cardio a week right now, it's just only 4.5 hours or so is through rowing.